@peter_mundy might know. I documented the cable further back on this thread.
On the aera 660, is there any way to update one of the paid databases over wifi? IOW, is there a user interface on the unit for paying for it? I know one can update the firmware (which is free) and somehow I was able to update the databases using the voucher which came with the unit.
I was never able to make the USB interface to a computer (webupdater?) work for database upload. Then I discovered database update works over the unit’s wifi which is obviously much simpler. You can do it in the plane, if you enable a wifi hotspot on your phone.
I have used the GDL 39 via bt but never tried a wired connection – sorry
Has anyone tried updating the database over WIFI, where a payment is required?
Clearly nobody here has ever tried updating one of these… and it isn’t easy.
A search takes you to this description but the instructions there don’t quite work. First the flyGarmin website makes you download a 16MB browser plug-in, which then fails to find the unit (as I found before when I got it in 2017) over USB. However this eventually times out and asks you to type in the ID of the unit (which you find in the config pages). Then you go to the flyGarmin website and via a torturous process which I won’t even try to document you eventually find a way to order (under Individual Updates) the bit you want. I selected the Safetaxi ($75), and the European VFR Map Enhancements Database ($40). Then you go to the payment page and pay. It rejects various addresses as invalid, so I entered a US address in NY, postcode 10001 
which is also didn’t like but allowed me to confirm.
And as soon as you pay, the GPS (which is sitting there connected to wifi) detects you have paid and downloads the stuff. That is what I expected to happen and that bit is quite slick. The new Safetaxi is showing up but the VFR database is not showing… oh well. $40 wasted. No contact email.
The Garmin site has a very old yahoo email for me, which amazingly still works and even though Yahoo killed my login years ago it has a redirect on it… but I can’t change it. If I enter my normal email address, it says it is invalid…
The Aera GPS is nice, the Safetaxi is brilliant, the TAWS works great, but everything behind it (at Garmin) is basically crap.
I can also see why people have given up on these boxes for navigation:
The tablet products are 1/4 of that.
Peter why not call Garmin aviation support on +44 (0) 37 0850 1243. They are actually really helpful.
I found an email for them and they have refunded the mysterious VFR Enhancement
To dig up this old thread… is there any airspace warning solution which bring out airspace warnings on a 3.5mm jack socket?
The Aera 660 bring out TAWS/GPWS (terrain warnings) on the socket but airspace warnings are just beeps (no voice) which come out on its internal speaker. I have the 3.5mm socket wired to the intercom and that works great.
I can see ways of doing it but it would be a big hack involving opening the unit and connecting the speaker signal to the 3.5mm socket, via a mixer circuit. It would still be just a beep though. One would then have to detect the tone and convert it to some voice annunciation.
You mean other than a tablet navigator? (on the VFR ones I only know SD muself, but I imagine the others do it too)
On any product, tablet based on a dedicated aviation GPS, I am not sure that it comes out of the headphone socket, and not sure if you get voice annunciations (rather than just a beep, plus something appearing on the screen).
SkyDemon on an iPad mini with XGPS160
